Issue: Review Team Unable to Access Website (WebView App)

Question

CodeSmoked OP

Created Apr ’25

Replies 3

Boosts 0

Participants 3

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice regarding an issue we’re facing with the resubmission of the Skelbiu.lt app. Our app is a simple web view without any complex logic inside.

During the previous review attempt, the Apple review team was unable to access our website (https://www.skelbiu.lt) and encountered an error page. We contacted Apple Developer Support, and it appears the issue may be related to IP-level restrictions or network environment factors. The site remains fully accessible to public users and our internal teams without any problems.

Some additional context: • Our app is primarily a web view, built on the same codebase as our other apps, all of which have passed the review process successfully. • The access issue seems to occur only within the Apple review environment — we have not been able to reproduce it ourselves.

A bit more background: In November 2024, the Apple review team was able to access our website without issues. At that time, the problem was different — a demo account login error, which has already been corrected. However, after a later resubmission, the review team again reported that they could not reach our website.

If anyone has experience dealing with similar site access issues during App Review, or has advice on how to proceed (perhaps someone from Apple could assist?), I would greatly appreciate your input!

Thanks so much for your time and help!

Boost

Answer 1

Etresoft OP

Apr ’25

Lots of people write apps that connect to their web servers. I think it's pretty unusual when an app doesn't do that.

Internally, Apple is really old-school, big-iron corporate. I don't know specific details of specific products, but Apple's a big company, so there are lots of them. Generally speaking, if a 3rd party corporate networking/security app was a Big Deal 15 years ago, Apple probably still uses it today.

Probably the two most important things to check are IPv6 and SSL. Make sure your app works in a purely IPv6 environment. Curiously, this policy is 9 years old now. Apple has a solid track record of announcing major changes 9 years before making a hard change. People who ignore those warnings because their app is working fine then get blindsided years later.

Also, Apple can be very strict about SSL certificates for its own use. It really doesn't matter if your website works great in Chrome. It might not work from an Apple app or from an Apple internal network. People who roll their own SSL certificates are more likely to encounter this problem. I recommend checking your site with SSL Labs (http://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/). Even if you get an A+, double-check the details against Apple's published specs like this one and this one.

I'm not saying these are the same requirements as Apple internal networks. Apple is a black box. I have no idea what goes on there. But this is something you can check without going through App Review. Send yourself an e-mail containing HTML with images hosted on your site. If Apple Mail won't display the images, then this could be the reason.

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Answer 2

App Review OP

Apple

Apr ’25

Thank you for your post. We've begun investigating this issue but we've been unable to locate your app submission to provide further assistance. Can you provide the name and App ID associated with the app? These can be found in App Store Connect in the App Information tab.

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Answer 3

CodeSmoked OP

May ’25

Hi again,

We haven’t received any response since providing the requested app details.

Just to recap: the App Review team has been unable to access https://www.skelbiu.lt during the review, although the site is fully accessible publicly. The issue seems isolated to Apple’s internal review environment. We’ve shared full diagnostics and context here and via App Store Connect (last message sent through the Resolution Center on April 28, 2025), but the review appears stalled.

This app is a critical part of our business, and we urgently need to release updates already live in our other apps built on the same codebase.

Could someone from Apple please advise on next steps or escalate the issue?

Thank you — we really appreciate your support and hope to hear back soon.

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